Forums / Leah O’ Dwyer. Mosaic artist, writer and illustrator of children's books, poet and glass jewellery maker.'s Profile
lawriejohn15
lawriejohn15
| Forum role | Member since | Last activity | Topics created | Replies created |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Member | Sep 9, 2019 (6 years) |
- | 2 | 0 |
- Forum role
- Member
- Member since
Sep 9, 2019 (6 years)
- Last activity
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- Topics created
- 2
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Bio
I was born in the Melbourne suburb of Coburg the youngest of six in 1953. My foray into a creative lifestyle started when I wrote my first poem at 12 yrs old. From that age through my teens till my mid 20’s I wrote scores of poems every day, most were crap. It did not matter; it was the practice of writing and honing my poetry skills. I read lots of poets, mostly English, Irish and some Australian. At the age of 14 I was given a Kodak instamatic camera and my passion for photography took off. However it was mainly snapshots. I was developing an artist eye and started photographing random scenes and people. In my early 20’s, poetry was my main passion and I enrolled in the Diploma of Creative writing at the Gordon Institute in Geelong. It was in this course that I discovered the Beat poets, Jack Kerouac, Allan Ginsberg, Gary Snyder and William Burroughs. These writers were exciting and inspired me to explore words and step outside the conventions of poetry writing. The diploma was converted to a Bachelor of Arts degree with majors in Drama and Political Science . I am a political activist an d is an influence in my art practice. Photography came back into my life in a serious way in my 30’s when I bought my first single lens reflex manual camera and I studied at TAFE black and white photography and darkroom techniques. I concentrated my photography on portraiture by capturing the “gaze” or the “moment”. In 2007 I bought my first digital camera a Leica. In 2010 and 2011 I studied for my Diploma of Printing And Graphic Arts (Multi Media). My art practice became graphic design. I still wrote poetry and in 2013 combined poetry with photography into a book. The first turning point in 2013 for me came when I published my poetry/photography book, “No Blacks, No Irish, No Dogs”. The poems and photographs complement each other. The second turning point came in July when I started my Master of Arts, Art in Public Spaces at RMIT University Melbourne. In 2016/17, I was involved in a community arts project at the community hub in Romsey along with fellow artist Chris Wyatt. The project involved a mural of nine panels painted by primary and secondary school children ,community groups and a large scale vine tree The mural was attached with branches and leaves made in mosaics. Since 2018 I have been making mosaic sculptures and mosaic jewellery that I sell a various community markets. Lately I’ve been making glass jewellery. I’m gay and non binary my pronouns are they/them.
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